What's Next in the Oakland Raiders' Road Back to Relevance?

It’s been a long time since the Oakland Raiders were relevant in the NFL. The last time they were even in the playoff conversation was in 2011, when they were 7-4 after 11 games. That was before they collapsed down the stretch and lost four of their final five.

They haven’t had a winning record or been to the playoffs since losing Super Bowl XXXVII following the 2002 season. The road back to relevance has obviously been long and bumpy, but for the first time in years, there is real hope for the Raiders in 2015. There is a young quarterback in Derek Carr, a star defender in linebacker Khalil Mack and rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper to get excited about, among other players.

The Raiders have some pieces now, but there’s a lot more they need to do to be a contender again. Chief among them is to develop young players into key contributors.

New head coach Jack Del Rio could be the elixir to what has plagued the Raiders for years or the next in a long line of flameouts. Del Rio has the very short and very restrictive offseason to try the most out of a young roster with plenty of holes.

Perhaps no position has more question marks for the Raiders than at cornerback, where the Raiders' most experienced player is 26-year-old journeyman James Dockery. The projected starters are D.J. Hayden and T.J. Carrie with a combined 31 games of experience, which isn’t even two full seasons.

Both Hayden and Carrie have shown flashes of brilliance but must be more consistent for the Raiders to realize gains on defense in 2015. They simultaneously must improve and get some help from a pass rush that ranked 30th in sack percentage last season.  

No one is sure who will be Oakland’s No. 2 pass-rusher behind Mack, not even the head coach. Del Rio recently alluded to sixth-round pick Max Valles competing with Benson Mayowa for that spot on SiriusXM radio via Raiders.com:

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We have Benson [Mayowa] on one side. We have some opportunities. We took a guy late, Max Valles, that had nine sacks last year in college. We’ll give these guys an opportunity to compete and to give us that element coming off the other edge. I know having two guys really makes it good, and ideally you’d like to have two guys that are premium guys rushing the quarterback, and we feel like we have one in Khalil Mack and we’re going to have to develop that second guy.

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Mayowa, an undrafted free agent in 2013, started one game last season for the Raiders after spending a year with the Seattle Seahawks. In 18 career games, Mayowa has one sack.

Obviously, Justin Tuck and second-round pick Mario Edwards Jr. will help by bringing pressure inside, but it’s clear that Del Rio and his defensive staff have their work cut out for them. Edwards is a rookie, Tuck is aging and it’s not as if the Raiders don’t have other question marks on defense.

If the Raiders can’t develop some of the young talent on the roster, getting back to relevance is going to be an extremely difficult endeavor. Unless the offense can carry the team, but its ability to that is also very much in question in 2015.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

It was sensible for the Raiders to draft Cooper in the first round and tight end Clive Walford in the third round to give Carr weapons, but a running game that was historically bad for the Raiders last year still needs to improve. The continued development of running back Latavius Murray and the reboot of Trent Richardson are among offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s most important tasks.

Murray has just 82 career carries, so he’s still a bit of an unknown commodity, and Richardson’s 3.3 yards per carry isn’t scaring anyone. The Raiders are desperate for a decent running game to take some of the pressure off Carr, so if neither Murray nor Richardson can get the job done, that’s going to be a huge problem.

Paving the way for Murray and Richardson is an offensive line that didn’t do the best job of opening holes in the running game last season. The addition of center Rodney Hudson in free agency should help tremendously, but the Raiders will need to get more from the other four positions.

Left tackle Donald Penn exceeded expectations last season, but he’ll be another year older and needs to be better against the run. Despite these questions, he’s probably the least of offensive line coach Mike Tice’s challenges in 2015.

Player	Projected Position	2013	2014
Donald Penn	LT	+4.2	+19.3
Gabe Jackson	LG	-	+3.7
Rodney Hudson*	C	+4.4	+13.0
Khalif Barnes	RG	-20.7 (LT/LG)	-18.9 (RT/LG)
Austin Howard	RT	-4.5 (RT)	-12.8 (RG)
Menelik Watson	RT	-6.6	-17.2

Tice must get more from left guard Gabe Jackson, who played well as a rookie starter in 2014. Jackson simply needs to take the next step. Tice also has to hope that moving Austin Howard back to right tackle will solve the issues he had from a year ago.

Fourth-round pick Jon Feliciano can earn the starting right guard spot over the veteran Khalif Barnes, but Tice will have to polish the rough edges for that to become a reality. Barnes is what he is at this point, but if Tice can get more out of him, you might be able to call him an offensive line wizard.

Then there’s right tackle Menelik Watson, the 2013 second-round pick who is now a projected reserve behind Howard and could be fighting for a roster spot. If Tice can’t get anything out of him, the Raiders have a very dangerous lack of depth at offensive tackle.

Yes, there is talent in Oakland now, but the next step on the road back to relevancy is for that talent to develop. The Raiders now have the raw materials to pave the way to relevancy, but the coaches must mold it and shape it the right way.  Expect a few more bumps in the road, but expect the Raiders coaching staff to get the train moving in the right direction.